


All Is Not As It Seems

by Vengeful_Owl



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Torchwood
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-02
Updated: 2013-02-02
Packaged: 2017-11-27 23:41:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/667808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vengeful_Owl/pseuds/Vengeful_Owl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Torchwood team find themselves as children on a train in the middle of nowhere. when they arrive to their mystery destination, they find themselves and their true friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: Gwen-bashing

It felt like he was moving, or more like something was moving with him on it and going fast. He vaguely wondered what he drank last night before attempting to rollover onto his side to find a body mass next to him. A small smile played on his lips as he put an arm around his bed partners’ middle. Slowly, as he and his partner settled into each other comfortably, he was becoming more aware of his surroundings.

The first thing that clicked in his mind was that he, in fact, was not laying in bed, but was laying sideways on an uncomfortable seat with his arm around a smaller than normal waist. The next thing he noticed was that there was a window open blowing in a rush of cold air and rain, making him wonder if his partner opened a window during the night. The last thing was the faint click-click-click of a train speeding over its tracks at an unknown speed.

He bolted upright, startling the person next to him. His heart hammered in his chest and his blue eyes scanned the area. It seemed to him that he was in a train compartment, and as he looked out the window that was to his immediate right saw a vast countryside landscape with rolling hills passing by, darkened by the lack of sun and the storm clouds which brought down a raging storm. Taking a more detailed look at his train compartment, he saw three children sat across from him, two girls and a boy all about the same age. Looking next to him, searching for his partner, he found another boy lying next to him.

It seemed to him that he was in trouble. The last thing he remembered was falling into bed, his arms wrapped around his lover as they slowly fell asleep after a seemingly endless day working at Torchwood Three. He did not remember getting on a train with a bunch of children and falling asleep.

The boy next to him stirred, slowly awakening, moaning and grunting as he realized he was rudely taken from his sleep when the man next to him jumped up. “Ugh, it’s too early, Yan, go back to sleep.”

Something about the boy was familiar to him. His jaw line and cleft chin were the first things to pop out at him. Once the boy opened his eyes a sliver to reveal the familiar blue-gray eyes that could stare deep into your soul and know everything.

“Jack?” he whispered, shocked that his own voice sounded childlike.

“I said, go back to sleep, Yan,” the boy groaned. “And close the window.”

Quickly he shook the boy, urgently saying his name again. “Jack, I think there’s something wrong…”

The boy groaned again and sat up straight before turning toward the man. “Ianto Jones, if I have to tie you down to make you leave me alone for a few hours, I will,” he smirked to himself. “Then again, I can tie you down and then tire you out with some vigorous activity.”

“Jack!” Ianto nearly screamed.

“What?” Jack said annoyed. He eyed Ianto very seriously. “Why do you look like you’re a kid?”

“You’re a kid, too, Jack,” Ianto pointed out. “We all are!”

Jack quickly assessed that, yes, he was a child and there were others in the compartment with them fast asleep and unawares of the scene in front of them. Upon further inspection, Jack pointed out that the other three sat across from them were the other members of the Torchwood team. Jack sat back and then looked out the window.

“Where are we?” he asked Ianto.

“Why should I know? I only woke up a few minutes before you,” Ianto answered, peeved.

“You’re the one that claims he knows everything,” Jack pointed out.

“Yes, everything about Cardiff and Torchwood,” Ianto rolled his eyes. “The last I checked, this isn’t Cardiff or Torchwood.”

Huffing like the child he was, physically and mentally, whether it’s because him mind regressed like his body or because he was always like that, Ianto dreaded to think, Jack kicked the closest available leg of the trio across from them. To both Jack and Ianto’s glee, it happened to be the team’s medic, Doctor Owen Harper, as the Londoner like to remind them. Squealing like a girl and effectively dislodging and waking up both of the woman on either side of him, Owen quickly stood on unsteady feet with his hands at the ready to karate chop anything. Jack and Ianto both snickered at the sight.

“Alright,” Owen grumbled. “Why am I surrounded by twerps?”

“Oh, shut it, Owen,” Gwen whined. “You’re more annoying now then you were as an adult. Sit down and keep that mouth of your shut, or I’ll shut it…permanently.”

If was even possible, Gwen Cooper was even more annoying as a child. Her voice was like nails on a chalkboard and the gap between her two front teeth was even wider making it look like she had lost some of her teeth. Ianto couldn’t believe they shared the same Welsh heritage. In his honorable opinion, Gwen disgraced the name of Welshwoman. He wondered how such a self-righteous and incompetent woman had made it as one of Cardiff’s Police Constables on the beat before coming to Torchwood – which was the worst mistake Jack had ever made, once again in Ianto’s honorable opinion.

“Jack,” Tosh’s small voice carried in the client that penetrated their compartment. “Do you know what happened to us? To be honest, I’m slightly frightened.”

Toshiko Sato, the one woman in the world that, in all definitions of the word, could be described as innocent. Sure, the Asian woman was a technical genius and can tell the tail end of temporal distorter and create an early warning system for a Rift in time and space that runs through Cardiff and build her own sonic modulator with faulty blueprints in order to save her mother’s life and risk treason. Tosh does what she does out of love, and that’s what separate girls from woman. Never truly afraid to show her feelings, unless it came from her own misplaced feelings for a certain Londoner, Ianto considered Tosh to be his best friend.

Ianto slightly nudged his lover, signaling him to make room, as he held out his hand to his friend. She took the offered hand and let him pull her next to him and the space that Jack had made for her. He wrapped his arms around her and she cuddled into his side. Jack hugged her from the opposite side, successfully sandwiching her between the two men/boys.

“It’s going to be alright, Tosh,” Jack whispered to her as he squeezed her tight. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

The compartment door slid open, making the Torchwood team jump in surprise. A curly red-head boy in his mid teens stood in the doorway wearing black robes with a lion crest and a red and gold tie. He had an air of smugness that automatically made Ianto dislike him. The boy looked at them down his nose, eyeing them critically and seemed to have come to the conclusion that they weren’t worth his time. He huffed, “You five best be putting on your robes. We’ll be arriving soon.”

Before anyone could ask the boy exactly where they would be arriving, he left the compartment and the door slammed shut. Ianto looked up at the carrying racks about their heads to find five trunks. He stood and took down the trunk that had his initials ‘I.J.’ written on it in gold. Placing the trunk on the floor, he kneeled down to open it and pulled out the black robes that was on top, along with a wooden stick. Looking at the crest on the robes and on the matching black tie, he noticed it was strikingly different from the curly red-headed boy. Closing his trunk, he put it back on the overhead carrying racks and watched as the others pulled out their robes and wooden sticks.

Quickly and quietly, turning away from each other for privacy, everyone changed into their robes. When Ianto turned around, pulling the last loop out of his tie, he saw that everyone was done changing, except none of them had their ties done. Being the only one in the team to wear a suit out of the Torchwood Team, he was the only one that knew how to tie a toe properly. Smiling and rolling his eyes in his oh-so Ianto way, Ianto did up everyone else’s tie, saving Jack for last.

“I knew you wearing suits would come in handy one day,” Jack laughed as Ianto finished.

“Really, sir?” Ianto smiled. “I thought it came in handy every day.”

Jack laughed again, “Well, they do make very good blindfolds.”

Owen groaned. “Don’t you two ever stop?”

Before Ianto could go back with a witty remark, a voice echoed throughout the compartment, “We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes’ time. Please leave your luggage on the train; it will be taken to the school separately.”

“School?” Owen complained. “What are we doing at a bloody school?”

The answer was obvious; at least to Ianto and Tosh it was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This is for a project for my Creative Writing class, and I'd thought I'd share it with you....please let me know it there are any typo's and/or grammatical errors.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Torchwood team find themselves as children on a train in the middle of nowhere. when they arrive to their mystery destination, they find themselves and their true friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Gwen-bashing

Leaving their mysterious belongings on the train, only carrying the wooden sticks that seemed to pull at them, the Torchwood team exited their compartment to be thrown about by the throng of children that seemed to be the only occupants of the steam locomotive. From the collective haircuts of the other children, Ianto conducted that they were transported back to the early nineties.

Following the children that had the same crest on their robes and ties, the team came face to face with a seemingly ten foot tall man with hair all over his face except for his eyes. The giant man kept repeating, “Firs’ years! Firs’ years over here! C’mon, follow me! Firs’ years follow me!”

Doing as the strange man said, the team followed the hoard of children through the wood that where nearby down a steep, narrow path. Owen complained the entire walk about the nature around them.

“What is that smell?” he asked, his nose wrinkled in disgust.

“That would be grass,” Gwen shot at him.

“Well it’s disgusting,” Owen shot back.

Tosh clutched Ianto’s hand for dear life as they followed Jack. Shivers ran down the duo’s backs as they remembered the similar exchange between the hot-headed Welshwoman and the brash doctor the day they narrowly escaped the cannibals.

Gwen marched on Jack’s right, trying to be discrete about brushing her hand against the immortals. Jack kept moving left, shuffling away from Gwen’s not-so-subtle advances. Each time that Gwen brushed against the immortal man, Ianto bristled on the inside but smiled with glee that Jack was dismissing her, even if her small mind didn’t see his actions as such.

The narrow path opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers. Everyone stood stunned and a few hand their mouths hung open. Ianto stood there, his mouth, like others, hung to the floor in awe.

“It’s beautiful,” Ianto breathed. “It looks just like the castle my grandfather told me about growing up. Every summer he’d tell bedtime stories about a magical castle and the learning and mischief that goes on. I loved my grandfather. He died when I was fourteen…”

Jack wrapped an arm around Ianto’s shoulders, pulling the young man/boy close to him. Tosh squeezed his hand in comfort before letting go so Jack can give him a proper hug. Ianto would have gladly stayed in Jack’s arms forever, but the booming voice of the large man broke them apart as he called over the crowed of young boys and girls as he climbed into one of the little boats that suddenly appeared to form a fleet. “No more’n four to a boat!”

The five members of Torchwood look at each other, silently trying to figure out who will not be in their boat. Ianto knows that he will be the one, but lets the others figure it out first. Ianto’s only the general support, nothing special to the team.

Tosh is their shy genius technician. Jack’s the leaders of their marry band of misfits alien catchers and Ianto’s lover, though that doesn’t really mean anything outside the bedroom – as Owen so nicely pointed out, Ianto was only the Captain’s ‘part tie shag.’ Owen’s the medical officer he makes sure they’re all physically fit and healthy in between his snark and looking up porn on his computer to avoid paperwork. Gwen’s the team lesion to the police, coordinating with the Cardiff PD over crimes scenes with alien involvement (though, coincidentally, relations between Torchwood and the police have gotten worse since Gwen joined the team).

Why would they want to sit with the lowly office boy that only cleans up after them, makes sure their kits are fully equip, hands files they need before they need them and hand out the coffee ten times a day since he’s the only one who can work the coffee machine? It’s not like he saves the world everyday like Jack, or can hack into the governments computer mainframe while running equations and such for extra security in theirs like Tosh, or dissect an alien and know what each gland and organ’s function like Owen, or release an alien sex gas that possesses an unsuspecting young woman that then shags part of Cardiff’s male population, turning the men into piles of dust like Gwen.

He’s just Ianto Jones, the office boy that shags the boss and wishes the love he feels for the immortal man to be returned.

“Ianto, you wouldn’t mind sitting in another boat, would you?” Gwen’s sickeningly sweat voice nearly made his ears bleed. But, being the polite person he was, Ianto just grinned and bared it.

Just as Owen stepped into an available boat, quickly followed by Gwen, Ianto felt like his heart was about to break. He knew the others really didn’t notice or care about him, but he thought someone might stick up for the Welshman. As his heart was about to crack, Jack turned to the others with his mega watt smile and told them, “You guys stay together, I’ll stick with Ianto.”

Gwen visibly bristled, but her obviously fake smile was still plastered on her face as she said, “Ianto will be alright by himself. He can make new friends in another boat. Come sit next to me, Jack.”

“Nah, go on ahead,” Jack encouraged. “We’ll be fine together and you guys can make a new friend.”

Steam seamed to pool out of the Welshwoman’s ears. “Why do you want to sit with him? He’s nothing special; he just cleans up after us and gets us food. He nearly got us killed, if you remember. Sit with me, Jack. It’s safer.”

Ianto’s shoulders sagged as his anger began to build. She just had to bring up Lisa! He was trying to save Lisa and was too blinded by love to see that the Cyberman implants had taken over and used him to rebuild its army. Jack had given him a second chance instead of killing him like protocol states, and Ianto had intended to use that second chance to show everyone that he wasn’t a bad guy, just a human blinded by love. In that second chance, Jack and Ianto became to reform their tattered friendship and eventually started a relationship based on need, and they needed each other, body and mind…but jack has Ianto’s soul, and the Welshman isn’t sure he’ll ever have the immortals.

“At least he did it out of love,” the usually quiet and reserved Tosh spat at the Welshwoman. “You got twenty men killed on your first day! I’d say you going into another boat is a whole lot safer for us.”

Owen smirked and nodded in agreement. “Honey, it’d be safer for the boat if you just swam.”

Gwen glared at the medic and stopped out of the boat, flaring her arms wildly. “Fine, if you want to sit with him, that’s fine by me. I’ll go into another boat where I’ll be safe.”

As Gwen stomped off and the others stepped into the boat, Ianto watched her jump into another boat with three boys and sulk. He had to wonder why she hated him so much, he was nothing but nice to her.

“Coming, Ianto?” Tosh called to him.

Ianto stepped into the boat and sat next to Jack as the large man called out “Everyone in? Right then – FORWARD!”

The fleet of little boats moved off all at once gliding across the lake, which was a smooth as glass.

“Why did you stick up for me?” Ianto asked, quietly.

Tosh looked confused at him. “You’re our friend, Ianto and Gwen was being an arse.”

“Got to agree, mate,” Owen said. “You may be the tea boy and I may make fun of you, but I still like you better than that cow.”

“Then why did you shag her?” Ianto asked.

“Don’t remind me,” Owen groaned, making them giggle.

In all seriousness Ianto said, “But she’s your friend, too. Sometimes, I think you guys don’t even notice I’m around and would prefer if I wasn’t, just to hang out with her.”

Jack placed a quick kiss on Ianto’s cheek. “Ianto, if I had to choose who I’d rather hang out with, I’d choose you in a heartbeat.”

Ianto practically beamed at Jack as Owen made over dramatic gagging noises at the sappiness of it all. The two were stopped from sharing a kiss by the large man shouting for everyone to duck as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbor, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles. They clambered up a passageway in the rock after the large man’s lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle. They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summery: The Torchwood team find themselves as children on a train in the middle of nowhere. when they arrive to their mystery destination, they find themselves and their true friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Gwen-bashing

“Alright, before we head in, I was informed to ask that if anyone apart of something called Torchwood, please step up to the front now!” the man said to the children.

Jack nodded to the team, which Gwen decided to join once more with a sour look upon her face, and they walked to the front of the gathered children. “Alright, go through those doors there and wait for a moment,” the man informed them, indicating to another pair of large oak doors.

The Torchwood team walked through the doors indicated to them as the man knocked on the other set of doors three times. Inside a large antechamber, an old man in long purple robes with sparkling crystal eyes and a long white beard waited for them. Only one of the Torchwood team reacted to the sight of the man.

“Grandfather?”

The old man nodded, and opened his arms as invitation to the dark haired boy that ran into his arms. Ianto hugged his grandfather with all the might his small body possessed; his eyes shut tight holding back tears. “I’ve missed you, grandfather.”

“As I you, young one,” his grandfather chuckled.

Ianto let go of the elderly man and whipped his eyes. “Grandfather, these are my friends, Jack, Tosh, Owen and Gwen; guys, this is my grandfather Albus Dumbledore.”

“Hello, sir,” Jack greeted, which was mirrored by the others.

“Grandfather, why didn’t you tell me, this castle was real?” Ianto asked.

“It’s only as real as you preserve it to be,” Dumbledore answered. “But now I believe you have questions; some of which I have answers too, others I do not.”

“You know how we got here, don’t you?” Jack accused. “You knew this would happen to us. Why?”

“Yes, I did know it will happen you, for it happened before,” was Dumbledore’s cryptic answer. “It is nineteen ninety three, so in the versions of you outside of these hallowed halls this has yet to happen, but it will and nothing will stop it.”

Ianto raised an eyebrow at his grandfather and asked, “But why?” with all the innocence of a child.

“Because all is not as it appears to be,” Dumbledore answers. “Ones you have thought as your friends are your greatest enemy, and though your learning here for the next seven years you will find who your true friends are.”

“Seven years?!” Owen exclaims. “As if grade school and med school weren’t enough. What are we learning this time?”

“Magic…” Ianto whispers, finally seeing what his grandfathers bedtime stories were about. “We’re going to learn magic.”

Dumbledore smiles at his grandson’s wisdom.

“What a load of bull!” Gwen huffed. “As if we’re going to believe these two. We weren’t born yesterday.”

“Gwen, look in front of you,” Jack tried to reason. “What else can explain all we have seen so far?”

“Alien induced coma that gives us collective bizarre dreams,” was the immediate answer, said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Ignore her, Mr. Dumbledore,” Jack said, turning away from the ex-Police Constable.

“Professor,” the old man corrected.

Jack nodded in understanding as Dumbledore turned once more to his grandson. “Ianto, there is one thing I’d like to ask you before you re-join the others. Would you like to be addressed by your given name or your step-father’s name?”

“Oh, goody, just another surprise about the tea boy,” Owen groaned good naturedly.

“What’s you’re given name?” Tosh asked with a grin.

Ianto blushed, reciting his long name, “Ianto Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.”

“Since my great-grandfather,” Dumbledore began to explain, “My family has kept our ancestors alive my adding their names to their sons.”

Ianto nodded. “My mother is my grandfather’s daughter and decided that since my father left us when she found she was pregnant, she would continue the tradition. When my mother remarried when I was eight, my step-father had my name legally changed to just plain Ianto Jones. I’d like to use my given name, if it isn’t too much trouble, grandfather.”

“Well, a name doesn’t make the man,” Jack decided. “I don’t care if your name is William Arthur Philip Louis Mountbatten-Windsor, as long as you’re you.”

“Oh, gag,” Gwen groaned, rolling her eyes at the couple.

Ignoring the rude Welshwoman, Dumbledore beamed at the duo before ushering them along to another set of oak doors. “Rejoin the others and I will see you all soon,” he told them before opening the door for them.

A wrinkly woman was at the head of the group of children, her hair tied back into a tight bun under her witch’s hat. “Follow me,” she called.

Through a larger set of oak doors, the children filled though to a Great Hall. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. At the top table, Albus Dumbledore sat, smiling at the new students.

Ianto noted that the woman stepped up to a stool and picked up an old tattered hat that began to sing to the great hall. All of Torchwood was stunned into silence at the fact that a hat was singing to them, and it wasn’t alien – well, Gwen believed it was alien. The woman announced to the Great Hall that once the group of children’s names were called that they were still on the stool and let the hat sort you into a house.

The first name of the Torchwood team to be called was Gwen, who was a bit skittish about the tattered hat being put on her head. Once it screamed to the hall “SLYTHERIN!” one of the end tables, whose mass of student wore black robes with green lining and a green and silver snake crest clapped and cheered, indicating that was where Gwen was to sit from now on.

Ianto was next, Dumbledore used as his surname, stunning the Great Hall into silence. A little voice entered his head, saying “What a sharp mind you have, one that is ripe for leraning. Ravenclaw would suit you greatly. You have the courage of a lion, Gryffindor would welcome you greatly. You’re cunning and sneaky, which gives you the skills of a Slytherin. Above all you are loyal, beating you to be kind and genital, even with your greatest foes. I know just the right house for you.” The hat yelled out “HUFFLEPUFF!” and the opposite end table clapped and cheered, with student in black robes with yellow lining and a yellow and black badger crest. The table seemed to be ecstatic that the Welsh native was chosen to be in their house. When Ianto sat down at the beginning of the long table, whoever could reach him patted his back and shook his hand.

Ianto watched as other were called up and waited patiently until it was Jack’s turn to be called up to the stool. With all the air of belonging, Jack sat on the stool and let the hat rest on its head until it proudly called out “GRYFFINDOR!” and the middle table closest to Ianto clapped and cheered for their new classmate. The students at this table wore the standard black robes with red lining and a red and gold lion crest. Owen was called right after Jack, who slumped in the stool with boredom. After a while, the hat once again called out “GRYFFINDOR!” and Owen sat next to Jack, also earning claps and cheers from the table filled with red.

Running out of letters in the alphabet, Tosh was called last of the Torchwood team. The shy girl slowly sat on the stood and looked down in her lap as the hat was dropped on her head. Within seconds the hat shouted out “RAVENCLAW!” and the last table in the middle, the one in which its student wore black robes with vibrant blue lining and a blue and black raven crest.

Once the rest of the first years were sorted Dumbledore stood and gave his beginning of the year speech before letting everyone feast. Ianto’s housemates warned him to stay away from the Slytherins, telling them how evil and vile all the students were. Suddenly, Ianto understood why Gwen was graced with admittance to the green house, one full of jealousy and envy.

After everyone was done feasting and desert vanished from the table, Dumbledore introduced a new Professor and warned everyone of something called Dementors that were patrolling the grounds looking out from the mass murderer Sirius Black.


End file.
